


Shift

by deathwailart



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Backstory, Earthborn (Mass Effect), F/M, Sleeping Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-12
Updated: 2014-07-12
Packaged: 2018-02-08 14:27:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1944612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathwailart/pseuds/deathwailart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Saoirse Shepard has never slept well, the Reaper war doesn't change that.</p>
<p>Written for the 30 day drabble challenge: shift</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shift

You get used to artificial time in space. The subtle shift in the lighting even though any window shows dark as far as the eye can see punctuated with spots of light. It took Saoirse years to get used to it when she first signed up and she used to pace the streets the way she'd pace around the turf the gang controlled. These days – ever since the Normandy became hers really – she does the rounds. Sees who needs to unload because the Normandy is a small ship and her pacing up and down out of her uniform (her old hoodie is gone and it's a stupid thing to miss, that ratty old one that was more grey than any colour, that smelled nothing and yet everything like _home_ ) because yeah, it's always a tall order but someone has to look like they know what they're doing.  
  
That's Saoirse's job.  
  
But still, she's not a good sleeper at the best of times because she always used to sleep in bursts, a few hours here, a few hours there, never usually at night and her cabin is never dark, not with her giant fish tank glowing blue or the innumerable displays and interfaces. Earth was like that, at least where she grew up. Neon signs and a city that never slept, ugly and grey and broken, covered in graffiti and the rainbow hue of the lights advertising dive bars and strip clubs. Too many places remind her of Earth. Omega. Tuchanka. The seedier, dirtier parts of the Citadel. Worlds where she's forgotten the names or why she was there really, just an endless blur of trying to help because someone has to and she wants to. Wants to let people know that there's someone out there fighting.  
  
It's a terrible thing to think but the Reaper war? It probably hasn't changed a thing about how that place looked unless it's just wiped it off the map. She doesn't even have photos. Doesn't even have her old ink. Yeah she got the tag tattooed on her again back after Miranda brought her back but it's not where it was – the past is behind her.  
  
"Saoirse?"  
  
Kaidan's voice startles her and she comes back to herself. Barefoot in a pair of his sweatpants, standing in front of the fish tank as a jellyfish puffs along in lazy pulses, the snapping eel hiding amidst a pile of artificial rocks.  
  
"Sorry," she mutters and realises she's cold – she's never actually checked to see if the ship temperature changes with the sleep cycle but she always feels cold at night, it's why she used to wrap herself up in that ratty old hoodie when she made the rounds of the ship.  
  
"Can't sleep?" The blankets rustle when he sits up, his hair flattened, a crease in his cheek from the pillow and it makes her smile as she joins him and immediately presses her feet against his calves until he squirms.  
  
"I'm not a good sleeper, you know-" She cuts herself off because how could Kaidan know? They didn't have long together before she died and it's taken time to get back to how they were. And it's not exactly a normal situation right now.  
  
"You wanna talk?"  
  
"Not right now, I just...you've got my back, right?"  
"Always."  
  
Kaidan knows about the Reds, knows about her old life because she's not ashamed (not proud, the way Terra Firma seem to want her to be ) because she survived and look at her now but he's not going to understand that she needs to have someone there. Someone she can trust. Not just as a lover or a partner or a fellow soldier but that 'I've got you' thing, a kind of trust she's so rarely given out.  
  
"C'mon, get some sleep, I'll be here."  
  
She gives him a push so he lies flat on his back, rests her head on his chest and curls up, drifting off to Kaidan's fingers stroking through her hair for a stolen few hours of sleep.


End file.
